Frugal Friday- please join in!

I cut lots and lots of lilacs to decorate our house this week. So lovely.

I found potatoes, apples and oranges for a good price at the grocery outlet.

I hunted with my daughter for a prom dress at thrift stores. No success yet, but we still have two weeks so we’ll keep looking.

I spent some time sorting my fabric stash so it’d be easier to see what I have. In the process I found the cut-out pieces for several more of these sweet little bags, which I’m planning to finish next week.

I found 15 boxes of cereal in different stores for 99 cents- $1.49 a box. Since we only eat cereal on Sundays, and for the occasional snack, this should last us at least 2 months.

I set aside a few new items from a relative’s de-cluttering project to use as gifts for kids and friends in the future.

When the screen died on one of our laptop computers, I bought a ‘new’ flat screen monitor. For $12.95 at the thrift store. It’s bigger than the one on the laptop and has much better picture quality. $12.95. Yeah, I already said that. But wow! 🙂

When my son needed a belt to go with his new work pants, I nixed the $25 one at JC Penneys, and instead bought one that was just as nice at a thrift store. For a buck.

Not so frugal:

That $1 belt? It got lost. Pretty sure it’s somewhere in the house, but my son ended up wearing an old one to his new job. Ah well.

The miles I’m putting on the minivan, mostly driving kids to work — 157 miles in two days alone. So tempting to go looking for a car that gets better gas mileage than our 20 mpg minivan. But then we’d have insurance and repairs on yet another vehicle. We should probably stick with the minivan for now. And I did combine grocery and thrift shopping with all that driving.

What went well in the frugality department at your house this week? Did you have some not-so-frugal moments too? I’d love to hear about it all in comments, below. Or if you blogged about it, share a link to your frugality post here.

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I shopped at Aldi, while combining some errands(it is usually too far out of my way)

I got my daughter some diamond earrings for graduation at Kohls. Only 1/5 carat but they were originally $250., for $40 with 2 coupons, reward dollars and sale. Also at Kohls, a big Christmas print fleece blanket for $2, you can’t find the fleece for that!

Bought graduation party items on clearance at Dollar General- real score! and borrowed some more items from friends instead of buying.

Bought my girls used versions of the books they wanted in their Easter basket, much cheaper! Amazon and Halfprice books are good sources.

Fixed the dog’s electric fence myself instead of paying them to come out, I also found the battery for the collar on amazon for half the price they charge!

Thanks! This helps keep me motivated and I love seeing what others have done!

– Bought 6 big boxes of my kids favorite cereal for 75 cents each, plus got 2 free bags of marshmallows and saved a buck on milk in the process.
– Exchanged a dress shirt for Hubby for one that fits and is in a new pattern from what he already has (have been trying to do this since November!)
– bought dress shirts in my husband’s hard-to-find size on clearance online with a coupon that canceled out shipping. I could also say this was not frugal, since he didn’t HAVE to have them, but anyway….
– Decided to make the necessary repairs to our current paid-for-car and keep driving it rather than upgrading. We’ve been going back and forth on this decision for a while, but as nice as a newer vehicle with more space would be, the one we have is a pretty good car and if we’ll just sink a couple grand into it, we’ll get a lot more use out of it. Even all the cost in repairs is minimal compared to buying a newer car and having a car payment!
-Sewed a nursing nightgown out of a sheet I don’t need anymore. I just need to buy a $2 spool of thread to finish the project.

Oh! And by waiting until after Easter I was able to get two of my kids Sunday shoes at Kmart with a buy-one-get-one-for-$1 sale. <$10 each, which isn't too bad for new shoes. I don't have much success thrifting shoes for my kids anymore.

I did NOT succumb to the desire for a store-bought pizza. I usually let my dough rise for 2 hours but I just shortcut it by an hour, putting it in the oven with the lightbulb on so it could be in a warmer place. Pizza came out great.

– bought spring clothes for my 3 1/2 yo at Value Village on a 50% off.

– purchased a darning egg online (okay, that wasn’t frugal, because I also bought cotton yarn for knitting washcloths!), in order to darn my husband’s socks and a sweater that I got as a souvenir in Scotland nearly 30 years ago. It still fits, and I am wearing it again, which is probably the most frugal thing of all for me!

-planning to make a split pea and ham soup with the Easter ham bone and leftover meat.

I stayed out of grocery stores altogether for the whole week. We’re pretty close to starvation (haha! not really,) but my husband went and bought bananas and my daughter came home with a 50lb sack of potatoes and a large cabbage.)

Sold 17 of my geranium clippings that I rooted and were growing gorgeous flowers. $50. Not bad.

Not so frugal:

bought a kid who isn’t mine two pairs of shoes since he couldn’t get his feet in his old ones, but I bought him one pair the right size and the other the wrong size. I gave them both to mom and gave her the gift receipt – but sigh, I don’t think she exchanged the small pair for the correct size. Should have done it myself. I also had their electricity turned back on to the tune of $340, but sadly they are going to lose the house next week anyway, and because of serious issues I’m joining forces with some other women to do an intervention today. Pray for us. NOT fun. I’m a wreck. We just have to make sure those beautiful kiddos are safe.

– Resisted an ALMOST-impulse buy of fancy boxed thank you notes for $12 (for 8 cards!), and waited to use my Joanns 50% coupon for a box of 40 cute cards at just $5. I’m a sucker for nice stationery, but I’m glad I stopped myself from the indulgence.

– Gave my son a haircut

– Sewed Easter dresses for my girls with stuff from my stash

– Made cupcakes for my daughter’s party instead of buying them

– Pulled out some old self-patched jeans from my closet instead of buying new ones

-Decided to grow out my high maintanence short haircut to save money

I had a lot of “fails” this week, as far as spending goes, but it’s nice to reflect on certain efforts that stood out that hopefully help compensate.

– Resisted an ALMOST-impulse buy of fancy boxed thank you notes for $12 (for 8 cards!), and waited to use my Joanns 50% coupon for a box of 40 cute cards at just $5. I’m a sucker for nice stationery, but I’m glad I stopped myself from the indulgence.

– Gave my son a haircut

– Sewed Easter dresses for my girls with stuff from my stash

– Made cupcakes for my daughter’s party instead of buying them from a bakery (even though it was the day after Easter and I was bone tired)

– Pulled out some old self-patched jeans from my closet instead of buying new ones

-Decided to grow out my high maintanence short haircut to save money

I had a lot of “fails” this week, as far as spending goes, but it’s nice to reflect on certain efforts that stood out that hopefully help compensate.

Successfully used half ground beef and half tvp with some oatmeal thrown in for tacos! Even my son didnt notice!
-Got tvp for 1.29 lb
-Found clearance pork chunks for 2.19/lb and 90% lean ground beef for 3.19/lb grabbed all they had which wasnt alot but much better than 4 and 4.50/ lb it is on sale lately
-Made a sweet dream spray for smaller daughters with lavender oil from walmart
-Used clearanced ham for sandwiches tonight
-got a canning pot and crockpot from freecycle and gave a vacuum and dog crate requested a rice cooker.
-Borrowed The Tightwad Gazette from library
Not so frugal-bought canning jars for jelly to go with $1.07/lb strawberries Im getting tomorrow. Look at it as an investment. Also lost $4 in aspargus because I didnt ise it quick enough
Love being accointable!

1Tbsp alcohol and 15 to 20 drops of oil in 4 oz spray bottle with water. Got the spray bottle in a 3 pack travel size from dollar tree. I cant remember the website I got it from offhand. Worked great! Has all kinds of health benefits but I was going for the calming effect.

So used the spray tonight. Both girls went down well. They asked to go to bed so they could use the spray!! So for .15 approxiately they had a great bedtime! Yeah! Also used up rest of ham got on sale and homemade bread for lunch, used free buffalo chicken breast in a rice casserole with homemade broth .29 can of corn and $1 block of cheese. Plus leftover tacosauce from other night. The avocados were unfrugal part at .79/ ea . Also made jar of homemade ricearoni with white rice from 25 lb bag and whole wheat thin spagetti. Those little boxes DO NOT FEED my crew! Lol 😉 Feel like I accomplished a good day!

When I had squeezed all the facial cleanser I could out of the tube, I cut it in half and got 3 or 4 more days’ worth.

I changed the water in the bouquet on the table to lengthen the life of the beautiful flowers.

I went to a garage sale and found two name-brand purses, five gifts, a photo album, an unopened box of stationery, a decorative basket and a board book for my son … all for $5!

I ate a pb&j in the car on my way to an appointment instead of going through the drive-through. Two other times, I just came home and scavenged for food here rather than giving in to temptation to get fast food.

I bought several books for Kindle that were free that day.

I had earned store cash at two stores … and remembered to use it before it expired.

I went on a de-cluttering kick, and in the process of sorting through things and cleaning, I found postage stamps, lots of useful memo pads including post-its, and a rather expensive Christmas gift that had been hidden too well!

I’m actually very excited about my thrifty thing: I have been down to one pair of very ill-fitting jeans for several months, and have kept an eye out at the thrift store w no luck. Did NOT want to spend the $ on new jeans, especially since I really only wear them on Fridays because of work. Well today I was in a big city with some time on my hands, googled thrift stores and found a PERFECT pair for $10. Awesome.

Needing a prom dress for my daughter some years ago, that was long but not so long it needed shortening (she is only 5 foot) we found a red silky nightie which had thin adjustable straps across the shoulders. lt looked great and was a perfect fit, much cheaper than any of the dresses and had the advantage of being a garment that could be used again.

At first thought, I didn’t feel like I had done anything terribly frugal, than thought more about it and realized I actually had a pretty frugal week!

-Instead of buying brand new Easter dresses for my girls, we used some hand me down, but still adorably cute, new to them dresses.

-Learned a new hair cut approach for my 1 1/2 yr old with prolific hair instead of going and getting it cut professionally.

-Inventoried our freezer to see what needs to get used up before we move in less than 2 months.

-Bought as few groceries as possible to use up the stock pile in our freezer and pantry before we move.

-Made our own pizza, instead of ordering take out.

-Ordered a book from Paperback Swap instead of buying it.

Not so frugal splurge: Paying a premium for a local grocer to grind some pork and ham to make ham loaf for Easter since we are away from family (and my meat grinder) this year and craved a little reminder of family and home…..

Off topic, but not. I poked through my folks’ guest-room closet at Easter. I found dresses — first communion, confirmation, prom, Easter and bridesmaid. Please note my first communion was in, um, let’s see. 1987? That one’s not one I’d give up, but two of the bridesmaid dresses are still there only because no one has gotten rid of them. Anyway, my point is, if the daughter who needs a formal gown is willing, her older sisters could put out a request on facebook for dresses, and perhaps someone among their cohort was in a wedding last summer and has a formal to spare or share.

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